Exterior Design Dilemma!
Hi all! House is 30 years old. Was remodeled completely in 2017, just before we purchased. Is nearly perfect inside. Outside is not bad - but is bland and could use help. Thinking of replacing shrubs for some of different colors and heights. We added a small Rose of Sharon tree at the left, but have yet to do more. I am thinking of adding flower boxes below the front left windows and the right porch cut-out. I think something like shutters would pop, but not exactly shutters. I need help!! Please! The more specific the better. Thank you,
in advance!
Comments (19)
PROPatricia Colwell Consulting
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoNo shutters on those windows . I do agree you need major landscaping and I would start with a walkway from the street to the front door, remove all those over pruned shrubs and look at beautiful foundation plantings . and no window boxes You have lots of space out front to do nice deep beds
Molly D. Zone4B
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Exterior Design Dilemma 80' contemporary
Comments (4)If moisture is getting in, you need to replace the siding. Wrapping the house with a material such as Tyvec under the new siding will allow moisture vapor out of the structure without letting rain in. The siding you choose will be a balance of aesthetics and cost. Are you planning to be here a while? If so, aesthetics may be more heavily weighted and cost return on siding choice isn't really a consideration since it will be many years out and who knows what the housing market will be like. Overall expense may still be a factor, depending on budget, however. If you plan to sell in a very few years, then getting something that will do the job but cost less may be important for your ROI. It sounds like vinyl will fit in the neighborhood. We installed some hardiboard siding 20 years ago and I have been impressed. It has not needed any maintenance whatsoever, even on the south and west sides of the house. The wood clapboards have needed painting three times during that time. The one place it has been an issue is where the furnace exhaust leaves the house, and it needed replacement there, most likely due to the acidity from the vapor. if you are getting a new roof this month, you might check out how expensive it would be to increase the roof overhang as part of the process. Both Mariah Weyland's images have deeper roof overhangs, and I like the aesthetics of that better....See MoreExterior design dilemma; should garage doors blend/contrast w/ house?
Comments (6)We have a house in the family we are considering that has the same weird front door on the side arrangement and garage door in front (city lot, no other place for a garage) and our plan if we redo the house is a garage door that blends with the house and then spruce up the front and the walkway to the front as much as possible. (We are wondering even about putting some kind of porch over the front door so that there is some front-facing structure that can say ‘hello, front door here!’ but we haven’t quite decided what form that would take yet.) Otherwise people see the garage door and get confused about a lack of front door....See MoreExterior Design Dilemma - Boring House
Comments (17)Where do the doors go - into which rooms? Was perhaps the side facing the driveway meant to be the "front," entering into your front room/living room? Sometimes they placed houses in a way that might have made sense at the time, but don't anymore - or rural areas the house sometimes faces driveway instead since no one would be approaching from the front. I would not be spending money on adding on dormers and other stuff not original to the era of the house. Sorry, like it or not, its not a colonial or cape house.... but it does in fact have a charm or character of its own. Sometimes with an old house, less is more. Be careful you don't ADD to the visual clutter already there, and instead, you want to strip OFF the extraneous gack that is creating visual clutter - like the 2 extra porches on the driveway side! LOL - its like you have the orginal sunporch, then another porch was added on to that, then the third porch (with stairs) onto that! Do any pics exist of your house in the past? I wonder if there wasn't a porch on the side facing the street, with the roof attaching to the wall in that blank space above the door/windows and below the eaves. Rather than dormers, spend your money an open porch - need not span the whole length of the house, in fact it might look best just putting it on the right side over door + 2 windows to the right. Duplicate exactly the pitch and style of the other porch roof. I would make it an open porch, then your landscaping- flowering shrubs and ornamentsals in front of porch with inviting walkway from the street....See MoreExterior Design Dilemma
Comments (7)I like the idea of a black lantern as mentioned above. The old lantern over the door should then be removed. I think a pot containing a tall thin vertical shrub or a tall flowering plant such as a mandevilla would also help fill in the space. The three vertical plants in your window box, I'm sorry to say, just don't look quite right....See Morecalidesign
4 years ago
PRODesign Interior South
4 years agoCute home. You can tell some care has been put into its history. Have you ever considered removing the brick arch and replacing it with white columns? Placing carriage lights on them? I can also see a walkway leading up the front. I might relocate the house numbers as well.
Melissa King
4 years ago
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4 years agofelizlady
4 years ago
decoenthusiaste
4 years agobtydrvn
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4 years agobtydrvn
4 years ago
PROBeverlyFLADeziner
4 years agoI would make bigger changes. Here is a Before and After on a home. The brick was limewashed and a courtyard created in the front yard.
Melissa King
4 years agoThank you all so very much! While I do not believe we will be doing anything "bigger," we will definitely use many of your ideas with our landscape design. Although the pictures do not capture it well, there is a concrete walkway from the porch to the drive-way (the common rounded box wood type shrubs are along the brick, while the variegated lower ones are on the street side.) I'm going to talk to my husband about moving it or about adding another, but either way, lots more planting. I have a fatal lung disease and my medicines prevent me from doing any dirt related activities (not that I mind, as I have an aversion to earthworms.) Anyway, I want to set the outside up nicely so that my husband can water and do light up-keep to be grounded in nature when I am no longer here to talk his ear off - hahaha! I will begin to research low maintenance, zone 6 plants, but again, any help would be great. Thank you all
for being so helpful! The one tree we did plant is a Rose of Sharon shrub trained into a single trunk. It is supposed to max out at 8-12 feet - so hopefully a good size for the edge of the house. I may also look into removing the arch.
PROBarnes Custom Builders
4 years agocalidesign
4 years ago
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